Inquiry into the lives of homeless children

The country’s fastest-growing homeless population? Children and teens. They and their families make up an estimated 40% of Americans living in shelters, on the streets, in cars -- and the reasons are as varied as the people affected: catastrophic medical expenses, a low-wage job that doesn’t cover the basics, the loss of a job or a parent, a decreasing social safety net.

In “Nick News Special Edition: There’s No Place Like Home: Homeless Kids in America” (Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon), host and veteran journalist Linda Ellerbee travels across the country to show some of the young faces behind the statistics.

Whether homeless in Washington, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Virginia Beach or Carson City, they are angry, fearful, sad and ashamed; above all, they want to be like other kids, with a home of their own.

As always, no matter how painful the subject Ellerbee is exploring, from divorce to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, her well-researched approach -- unsentimental, straightforward, here-are-the-facts -- respects the intelligence of her young target audience. But, as always, Ellerbee respects their sensitivities too, tempering sad reality with hope.

Two children and their now-employed mom talk about what it has meant to have a home after living in their car. Ellerbee also visits a remarkable exercise in compassionate practicality: the Thomas J. Pappas School for the Homeless in Phoenix, where children are given an education, medical care, clothing, meals and a sense of belonging.